love this man. His life alone is evidence of his innocence. Judges commonly use a person's prior record as proof of intent. I ask that the judge look at his record and see if there is anything that would suggest this man would willingly break a law. Also there are countless men that have been convicted of much worse crimes and received a much lighter sentence. This is ridiculous! Free Hovind! He is innocent.

"I ask that the judge look at his record and see if there is anything that would suggest this man would willingly break a law."
The fact that he's made a career out of willful ignorance at best and outright bullshit at worst?

Tax evasion and tax fraud... the very things Capone was convicted with. Do you believe Hovind seriously deserves a lighter sentence than Capone for the exact same crimes? Besides, Hovind has spent years at his fraud. It's not like they caught him every year and only finally decided to throw the book at the retard. No, they took all those years of lying and cheating into account, thereby creating a very credible case with a show of intent.

"Also there are countless men that have been convicted of much worse crimes and received a much lighter sentence"

And you think we should continue this trend?
Bullshit! We can't be $crazy_adjective liberals about this shit!
We have to crack down on crime! Use the death sentence and claim the 5th amendment as reasonable suspicion!
And make Hovind pay his taxes!

In the UK at least your previous character isn't allowed to be brought up in court. You're tried on the offense you're accused of, not of what you've done before.
The argument 'M'lud, the accused has been convicted of ten burglary offenses in the past. It's obvious he committed this one' won't fly. If it did the police need never look for another criminal.
Having said that, Hovind is a professional conman and well deserves to be where he is. In fact, religion is the natural habitat of the fraudster, it's the only salesman's job where you don't actually actually have to prove that you've what you're selling actually exists.
Edit,
Thinking about it, Hovind's worse than that. Not only was he selling something he couldn't prove existed, he was selling something when the overwhelming evidence was against it existing. I guess the likes of Tommy Jones have far too much invested in Hovind's lies to admit to reality. Face up to it Tommy, you were taken for a sucker by a conman. You're not going to get your self-respect (or your money) back, let it go and move on.

@solomongrundy: That's not quite true anymore. Juries in theft and sex abuse cases are now apprised of previous convictions of the accused before retiring to agree on a verdict. In non-jury cases, of course, it's never been true at all, as judges and magistrates have always been aware of the perps' records. Bit difficult to not be aware, really ... when I was a magistrate I saw the same silly bastards over and over again.

And if Hovind hadn't put up such a stupid defence, and listened to his attorney, he might have avoided getting jugged. It's his own silly fault.

He's a delusional, uneducated fool of a human being. That's not a crime.
Lying to people about science is morally wrong. That's not a crime either.
Tax evasion and fraud on a massive scale is a crime, hence why he's in jail.

I ask that the judge look at his record and see if there is anything that would suggest this man would willingly break a law.

You mean the way he bloody did... since the record of Hovind's dealings with the IRS, fraudulent Bankruptcy attempt, lies under oaths, and all-round dishonesty regarding his employees was all submitted to the court as evidence.

For all I know you're right. But I was on a jury twenty-odd years ago and the defence brought up the accused's previous character. He had a previous record of stealing the blade for a plane from Woolworths. Anyway, the judge sent us out and when we came back we were told to forget what we'd heard. Ha.

But we acquitted him anyway, we thought he probably stole the timber from the building site but the evidence was too thin. That's why I have great faith in the jury system .